So I think the manager of my building is trying to screw me over.
I rented a room through him for over a year and a half, I was always a good tenant, no complaints about me, and the contents of the room remained in exactly the same condition as when I moved in. The only exception was that I wanted to hang a whiteboard on the wall, and so put a couple of nails into the wall. When I moved out I did my best to cover them back up, I put soft clay into the holes and painted them as similar a color to the original as I could find. Last night the manager told me that he can’t accept it, it needs to be 100% back to its original state, cannot have any kind of bump and needs to be exactly the same color. I told him that this is impossible, and that I did the best I could.
The building is approx. 70 years old, the next tenant has told me he doesn’t mind at all how it looks, yet it seems the manager is determined to not return part of my damage deposit (10000nt). For me I feel I could negotiate and allow him to maybe keep 1000nt, but I feel any more than that is just robbery on his part.
Wondering if anyone else has this kind of experience, and how would you best negotiate with this kind of unreasonable manager. Thanks.
Yep, no holes allowed, even in 70 year old building. Once I got kicked out of a place because I hung a picture. Yes, it is in the contract.
Personally, I agree that losing all the deposit seems a bit too harsh but it is SOP here. Yes, no one minds -and truth be told, everyone does it- and it is not a big deal to us but for Feng shui or whatever it is to the owners and it is their place.
Yeah I asked the manager before I put the nails in if he would mind, he said he’d be okay with it as long as I fix it up when I move out. I just didn’t realize he meant a perfect fix-up job. I’ve rented places before where I’ve put a few small nails in the wall and no one has ever minded, I guess this guy’s just a bit more fussy.
Anyways he told me I could try to hire a painter to come and fix it if I couldn’t do it myself, he said he’d take his payment out of my deposit and return the rest to me. I’ll take a trip back tomorrow to give it another shot myself, if he’s not satisfied then I’ll have to find a painter somewhere.
A pain in the butt, but yeah I’ve learned my lesson: keep nails out of the walls.
Just get a small container of spackling paste and a putty knife and refill them after cleaning them out. Probably don’t even need paint. Videos online how to do it. Will take a few hundred and a few minutes.
I’ve never had any landlords do this to me and I drill holes all the time. I mean this is expected for anyone living in a home. I can fill it up anyways and paint over them.
Last time I moved out I filled up all the numerous holes in the wall and the landlord didn’t really do anything else about it. There was even a large hole for the ac that I filled up with brick mortar so that they have the same strength as the original wall.
Just found my spackle from the last move years ago. Needed to add a little water.
It comes with a plastic scraper on the lid.
Hardware store or maybe one of those Hsiao-Bei ? stores that sells cheap household stuff.
Get some concrete nails also!
It’s going to be hard to match the paint. Leveling it off won’t be hard, but even if you happen to guess the right color, it may not match if the brands are different. Even if the brands are the same, it could be mixed slightly differently. Even if the original is a flat color, which is likely is cheap flat white, old vs. new paint is going to stick out. It will likely be a lot less trouble to just hire a pro now and do at least to the edge of the wall. The guy that used to be the foreign UberEasts guy that turned into a painter guy had good reviews, though I don’t know if he’s still around or near you or would take such a small job.
You can… Wet a slightly abrasive dishwashing sponge… Scrub the wall and it will smear the waterbased paint a bit… I have done this and scrubbed out the worst black marks. You can even do this on a less obivous part of tlhe wall untill the sponge absorbs some of the paint then use it to touch up over the nails… Often after it drys it looks perfect
Right now I’m really not trusting my ability, as I’ve never done this kind of patch-up work before, and it seems the manager is looking for perfection. Seems I’d be better off just finding someone, although don’t really know where to look. Someone mentioned a foreign guy that does this type of work in Taipei? How to get in touch with him? Or does anyone know of someone else that could help out with this? Thanks in advance.
Not really related to the discussion about the contract, but your repair was “lacking” to say the least , so ignore if you don’t care:
You seem to have left the plastic anchors inside the wall, you should just have used a pair of pliers to pull them out entirely, and then just fill it with any wall paste and paint over.
If I was the owner I’d be disappointed with how you left the wall to say the least haha
But I can’t really imagine the state of a 70 year old building, so maybe the sticking-out anchors are in theme with the rest of the apartment.
Actually I strongly suggest pulling the inserts out (you can screw a screw part way in then pull it out with a plier or hammer claw), then use brick mortar to fill the hole, not wall compound.
The reason is that wall compound shrinks, and it takes multiple application to fill a hole. Brick mortar does not shrink and when it cures it cures as hard as the wall itself. It means you can now paint over it to make it disappear completely with one application.
Try that, that’s what I did with my last move out and the landlord was very satisfied and was even surprised I could restore it completely. I drilled MANY holes into the wall by the way.
This also include a large 3" diameter hole drilled into the wall for AC line sets. That was filled so completely that the landlord couldn’t even tell it had been drilled to begin with.
I couldn’t find in after five minutes of searching. All I know is he used to post his stuff on Instagram and before he painted he worked for UberEats. I think he posted on the entrepreneur FB group. That’s all my info. He’s dead for all I know. If you can’t find him, find any painter near you and use Google translate on your phone.
Seems like you know what you’re doing with this, and OP has said they don’t. If they’re interested, perhaps you could offer to go over and fix it? For money of course - cheaper for them than losing their entire deposit, and a bit of money for you.
, so ignore if you don’t care: